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Steven Strogatz

@stevenstrogatz.com
14K followers 1.7K following 278 posts

Mathematician, writer, Cornell professor. All cards on the table, face up, all the time. www.stevenstrogatz.com

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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 11m
Beautiful article about math and AI by Dan Rockmore. The connection to art and photography via Walter Benjamin was very fresh -- definitely worth reading, even if you're tired of reading about math and AI.
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 24m
I had the honor of writing about Fields medalist Yu Deng for @TIME Magazine. The tricky part was to try to convey the essence of his brilliant work honestly, yet in terms the public might appreciate. time.com/collection/t...
A photo of Fields medalist Yu Deng, and a brief explanation of how his mathematical work helps bridge the gulf between the micro and the macro descriptions of air and other gases.
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 29/09/2026
My podcast with Janna Levin, THE JOY OF WHY, has been nominated for a Signal Award in the category "science and education". Please consider voting for us! vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting...
vote.signalaward.com
The Signal Listener's Choice Award needs YOU
I just voted for this finalist to win a Signal Listener's Choice Award. You should too.
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/09/2026
Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc
nyti.ms
Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)
An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 27/09/2026
Mathematicians and scientists: Want to write for a broad audience about big ideas? Apply for the fully funded Beyond the Ivory Tower writing workshop at Wake Forest, Jan. 15–16, led by NYT editor James Ryerson. Applications due Oct. 9: beyondtheivorytower.com/workshop
beyondtheivorytower.com
Workshop — Beyond the Ivory Tower
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 23/09/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/s...
nytimes.com
Mathematics Isn’t Just a Game to Let A.I. Solve. History Shows Why. (Gift Article)
In our field of applied mathematics, the long, human process of trial and error — not just the solutions themselves — is often what has led to progress.
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Delia Rodríguez @delia2d.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
De todo lo que ha pasado últimamente, me quedo con un detalle: Steven Strogatz llorando por unas matemáticas "al borde de la comprensión humana" elpais.com/opinion/2026...
elpais.com
La IA, las lágrimas de Strogatz y el momento Kaspárov
“Ya no podremos aspirar a escalar las montañas más altas, porque las máquinas siempre llegarán primero. Perderemos siempre”, lamentaba el matemático
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Jennifer Vibber @mrsvibbermath.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I feel like this would be a fun fill in the blank where every answer is correct: "I had a great conversation about _______ with @stevenstrogatz.com " "I had a great conversation about tile grouting with Steven Strogatz" and I'd still click that link.
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Dave Richeson @divbyzero.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Thanks! Sure! Here’s a short video. 
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dannycalegari.bsky.social @dannycalegari.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I don't use this word lightly, but if this is really happening (independent confirmation from reliable news sources would be good??) then I am stunned by the level of evil and contempt it displays. So much for Anthropic being the "good guys". xcancel.com/HedgieMarket...
xcancel.com
Hedgie (@HedgieMarkets)
🦔AI companies are bulk-buying rare books, scanning them through high-speed machines that cut the spines off, and shredding the originals. A service called ISBNdb facilitates orders of up to a million ...
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 12/08/2026
Latest crazy story from the frontiers of math and AI -- a neurosurgery resident, with no training in advanced math, uses ChatGPT 5.6 to solve a major open problem in numerical linear algebra. alextownsend.net/essays/SIAMN...
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Drew Magary @drewmagary.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
“Currently, Google’s offering is all-or-nothing: If you want to show up in search results, you’re also agreeing to let the company feed your content into the maw of its AI apparatus.” By @katiebakes.bsky.social www.theringer.com/2026/08/04/t...
theringer.com
The End of Google Search—and the Internet—as We Know It
For years now, Google has been tweaking its search formula to prop up AI and bury actual links. Now it’s rounding into its final form—and changing the internet forever.
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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
I actually don't mind being wrong.. we said this is what's happening on the Millennium Bridge.. what we proposed doesn't work. But it was interesting. We really did stick our neck out and unfortunately got our head chopped off. –Steven Strogatz, Cornell Professor @stevenstrogatz.com
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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 25/07/2026
What happens to beauty, truth, and proof when the prover isn't a person? Join hosts @stevenstrogatz.com and @jannalevinastro.bsky.social tomorrow for a discussion on AI and math in a special live recording of The Joy of Why podcast at #ICM2026. Reserve your spot: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-joy-of...
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Jude Isabella @judeisabella.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
So great to see a @biographic.bsky.social story in @theopennotebook.bsky.social's, "The Best Science Stories and How They Work." The always thoughtful @bengoldfarb.bsky.social annotated a bG story by writer Kamala Thiagarajan. Great resource, grab your copy: www.theopennotebook.com/the-best-sci...
theopennotebook.com
The Best Science Stories and How They Work: A Collection with Commentary - The Open Notebook
An invitation to engage with some of today’s most respected science journalists as they take readers beneath the surface to tell the stories behind eleven of the best science stories.
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 23/07/2026
The end of an era: Manil Suri reflects on his impending retirement after several decades as a math professor, building his reminiscences around the artifacts of his office — the paper clips, the chalkboard, the overstuffed filing cabinets. manilsuri.substack.com/p/on-saying-...
manilsuri.substack.com
On saying goodbye to my office
And retiring from the only job I've ever had
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Transitional Fossil @transitfossil.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
a truly joyful "joy of why" podcast from @stevenstrogatz.com fantastic discussion with Adam Riess, a former student and 2011 Nobel Prize winner, about cosmology. he's still doing great work studying the mysteries of science. Steve Strogatz' students are fortunate.
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Noise Research @noiseresearch.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Just finished this one, 'The Joy of X' by Steven Strogatz (2012). It's thought provoking and it explores some tricky concepts but above all, for a book on a traditionally maligned subject, it's readable for those of us who aren't mathematicians #booksky #books #maths 📚
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James Swift @swift.casa · 15/07/2026
Can also recommend Infinite Powers also by @stevenstrogatz.com Quite an achievement to make a book about calculus a great summer beach read! www.thalia.at/shop/home/ar...
thalia.at
"Infinite Powers" auf Englisch kaufen
Kaufen Sie "Infinite Powers" von Steven Strogatz auf Englisch. ✓ Click & Collect ✓ Jetzt kaufen
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 23/07/2026
How fast is the universe expanding? Two reasonable ways of estimating the expansion rate give puzzlingly different results. I discussed what this mystery might mean with Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist Adam Riess - join us! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com
The Joy of Why
Life Sciences Podcast · Updated Biweekly · “The Joy of Why” is a Quanta Magazine podcast about curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. The mathematician and author Steven Strogatz and the cosmologist ...
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Stanislas Dehaene @standehaene.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
The global neuronal workspace (GNW) is currently the best documented neuroscience mechanism by which conscious processing arises in the human brain — and now Anthropic researchers have discovered a similar workspace inside their large language model ! www.anthropic.com/research/glo...
anthropic.com
A global workspace in language models
Interpretability research on Claude's internal thoughts.
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George Cantwell @gcant.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Now with a nice "Editors' Suggestion" badge! We have some further rigorous results (i.e., not approximations) to follow shortly.
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Transitional Fossil @transitfossil.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
@stevenstrogatz.com today's "Joy of Why" was great. Lauren Williams was brilliant. the back-and-forth between two stellar mathematicians was terrific to listen to. you made a difficult topic accessible w/o being condescending to your audience. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com
What Is the Positive Grassmannian and Why Does It Show Up Everywhere?
Podcast Episode · The Joy of Why · June 25 · 52m
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 23/06/2026
To give you a taste, here are the first three pages (from the page proofs - the book is still in production)
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 23/06/2026
My new book! Written w my pal Alex Townsend, it's about the math behind enormous systems (medical scans, AI, etc.) and what happens when they outgrow our ability to understand them. Pre-order at @barnesandnoble.com for 25% off -> www.barnesandnoble.com/w/big-math-s... @littlebrown.bsky.social
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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 16/06/2026
Last week, with the good excuse of a 15 min lecture, I have discovered taxicab geometry. Very fun and surprising to say the least! So I took my chance to type down the lecture in my blog. I hope you enjoy www.mseri.me/the-geometry... #mathSky #eduSky
mseri.me
The Geometry of Bringing Your Kids to School
Geometry is among the anciest branches of mathematics. Ethymologically, it comes from the greek Ge (γῆ), Earth, and Metria (μετρία), measurement. It was literally born to measure lengths, something we...
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Andrew Krause @blindmath.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Ever wanted an interactive lightning-fast solver for models in physics, chemistry, or biology? Do you have a web browser? I'm thrilled to share our website visualpde.com, built explicitly to create interactive spatial models on most devices. Follow @visualpde.com for cool updates!
visualpde.com
VisualPDE
VisualPDE brings interactive science and mathematics to the web. Explore topics including waves, viruses and reaction—diffusion patterns, or create your own simulation.
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Andrew Krause @blindmath.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
"Unputdownable" is an apt description of quite a lot of @stevenstrogatz.com's writing! I'm glad to see such passion from a student who asked for summer reading recommendations 😀.
The beginning of an email which reads:

"Hello Andrew,

I just wanted to give you an update a week after our meeting. I have gone to the national library in the city to acquire and lend the books you suggested, they didn’t have the ones on PDEs, so I will have to go to a library further out to get those.

However, I’ve now started on Steven Strogatz’s unputdownable “Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos” which, funnily enough, I found more compelling than many non-academic books."
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 16/06/2026
For America's upcoming 250th anniversary, Time Magazine asked several people to suggest an example of a "Science and Health Breakthrough Shaping a New American Era." My suggestion: Big Math, the computer-assisted study of enormous systems. time.com/collection/o...
time.com
The Science and Health Breakthroughs Shaping a New American Era
TIME asked Bill Nye, Emily Oster, Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, and 22 others to tell us about the scientific advances defining the U.S. at 250
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 12/06/2026
Our beloved dog Murray had a calm and happy ending with us yesterday morning. Eating bacon and hamburger with great pleasure until the anesthesia made him sleepy and he lay his face down and dreamed of chipmunks. We were petting him and telling him what a good boy he is.
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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 11/06/2026
“The Joy of Why” is back. In our first episode of the new season, pioneering biochemist Jennifer Doudna talks about how her early, “rebellious,” decision to study RNA led her to a Nobel Prize. Tune in: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
podcasts.apple.com
What’s the Future of Gene Editing?
Podcast Episode · The Joy of Why · June 11 · 51m
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Roy Lonergan @roylonergan.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Really good podcast. The surprisingly simple formula is to get people who actually know what they’re talking about and let them talk. It’ll never catch on.
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 12/06/2026
If you like podcasts about math and science, I hope you'll check out The Joy of Why, which I cohost with my pal @jannalevinastro.bsky.social. Our first guest is the wonderful Jennifer Doudna, who discusses RNA, the CRISPR gene-editing mechanism, and her rebellious streak. youtu.be/T1SzNRElup0?...
youtu.be
What Is the Future of Gene Editing? | PODCAST: The Joy of Why
YouTube video by Quanta Magazine
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 02/06/2026
This terrific article by Siobhan Roberts could help elevate the public discussion of AI in mathematics. The interview about the Leiden Declaration is especially helpful. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/s...
nytimes.com
As A.I. Makes Strides in Mathematics, Mathematicians Urge Caution
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 16/04/2026
I'm listening to a wonderful book about Roger Penrose, THE IMPOSSIBLE MAN, by @patchenbarss.bsky.social . Such gorgeous writing and sensitive storytelling. And the math & physics – and the sociology of science – are described so beautifully and compellingly! Bravo!
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Jay Patel @infotainment.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
The concrete -> abstract approach is used in elementary math ed as well with success. Found the trig example ~ metric space connection intriguing. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Concreteness Fading in Mathematics and Science Instruction: a Systematic Review - Educational Psychology Review
A longstanding debate concerns the use of concrete versus abstract instructional materials, particularly in domains such as mathematics and science. Although decades of research have focused on the ad...
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Thomas Lin @7homaslin.com · 06/03/2026
“Kevin Hartnett is one of today’s finest chroniclers of math. With marvelous clarity and narrative flair, he introduces us to computer-verified proof, the drama behind it, and the people reimagining what math can be.” — @stevenstrogatz.com www.quantabooks.org/books/the-pr...
quantabooks.org
The Proof in the Code - Quanta Books
The inside story of Lean, a computer program that answers the age-old question: How do you know if something is true?
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John Butler @jslbutler.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
@stevenstrogatz.com I was showing my undergraduates your lovely 1988 Romeo & Juliet differential equations paper. Which is an excellent way of demonstrating novel and enjoyable applications of maths. A possible popular update could changing it to the two protagonists of Heated Rivalry.
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Emma Zajdela @mathemmatician.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Had fun talking with @websedgescience.bsky.social at the #APSSummit26 on how physics & math can explain fashion cycles! @aps-dsnp.bsky.social @stevenstrogatz.com
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 17/03/2026
Join us at Cornell on March 24 for a screening of this wonderful new documentary about a summer math camp for high school kids that has had an amazing impact on math in the United States. #ithaca as.cornell.edu/news/hunting...
as.cornell.edu
'Hunting Yellow Pigs' film shows a singular approach to math education
Cornell math professor Steven Strogatz appears in a new film, “Hunting Yellow Pigs,” that celebrates the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSiM) and its unconventional approach to mat...
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 02/03/2026
The 2026 Science Communication Awards are now open! If you’re a science journalist, communicator, or researcher creating public-facing work communicating #STEM, I encourage you to apply. Deadline: April 3, 2026 Apply: www.nationalacademies.org/awards/excel... #SciComm
nationalacademies.org
National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications
The National Academies are accepting submissions to an annual award program that aims to recognize and develop excellence in science communication by research scientists, science journalists, and scie...
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 26/02/2026
@bcdreyer.social you might get a smile out of this one, as seen in the Wikipedia page for Jonathan Rosen: "He lives in Manhattan with his wife, a Conservative rabbi, and their daughters." Just hope they're all happy with this arrangement. Who am I to judge?
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 09/01/2026
I've just started reading this new book by Shekhar Khare, a renowned number theorist at UCLA, and I highly recommend it. It takes the reader on an intellectual adventure, with very illuminating analogies and vivid storytelling. It's a book about some brilliant math, but it also has a great heart.
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 06/01/2026
My applied math colleague Chris Earls is looking to hire a postdoc. The area — interpretability of emergent behaviors exhibited by AI systems — is fascinating and important. Info below:
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 25/12/2025
Preparing for our annual family ritual — a blind taste test. This year's category: hummus!
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 24/12/2025
The Future of Veritasium @veritasium.bsky.social -- if you are a fan of the channel (as I certainly am!) you'll definitely want to watch this. It's Derek at his best. youtu.be/piHGnG4LsmQ?...
youtu.be
Am I Retiring?
YouTube video by Veritasium
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Amy @lolennui.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Absolutely nuts how everyone is firing on all cylinders in The Lowdown, if they don’t get renewed we riot
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 24/12/2025
@rachelcrowl.net You are so fantastic in The Lowdown! The whole cast is amazing, and so is the series, but you really steal the show whenever you're onscreen :-)
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 21/12/2025
The Geometry of Julia Child's Greatest Apple Tart The perfect recipe for the holidays -- made even better with math! By Manil Suri manilsuri.substack.com/p/julia-chil... #MathSky
manilsuri.substack.com
The Geometry of Julia Child's Greatest Apple Tart
The perfect recipe for the holidays made even better with math!
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 18/12/2025
Reaching the Masses: Six Authors on Public Outreach [about Mathematics] A Zoom conversation with: Keith Devlin Marcus du Sautoy Jordan Ellenberg Sarah Hart John Allen Paulos Steven Strogatz ams.org/journals/not... PDF: ams.org/journals/not...
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